A comparison of "dreamers" and "nondreamers": Eye movements, electroencephalograms, and the recall of dreams.

Research had established that rapid eye movement during sleep was correlated with dreaming, and both to light sleep as defined by EEG reactivity. In an attempt to cross validate these findings, Ss were selected as to whether they generally recalled dreaming. Ss slept in a laboratory setting wherein electro-oculograms and EEG's were taken during the period of sleep. Ss were awakened when the characteristic eye movement suggesting dreaming was observed, and during periods of quiescence. Recall of dream activity during both was solicited. Results suggest that "dreamers" manifest more ocular movement and reports of dreaming during periods of eye movement than "nondreamers." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Finger electromyographic activity during sleep: Its relation to dreaming in deaf and normal subjects.

Observations carried out during the sleep of 13 deaf Ss showed that: (a) the rates of dream recall from rapid eye movement (REM) periods were similar to those for normal hearing Ss; (b) finger electromyographic (EMG) bursts outside of REM periods were not related to the recall of mental activity; (c) in both deaf and hearing Ss, REM periods showed a consistently accelerated rate of finger EMG activity in comparison with other stages of sleep; (d) contrary to expectations, rates of finger EMG activity for 10 normal hearing Ss were just as high as those of the deaf group. The implications of this finding for the motor theory of thinking were discussed. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dream reports from different stages of sleep.

8 Ss (paid volunteer males, ages 17-27) were placed in the information-gathering sleep situation for 57 (nonconsecutive) nights. Ss were awakened during various stages of sleep (determined by EEG and eye movement activity), and the content of their dream or thoughts at the time of the awakening explored. Mental activity (dreaming, thinking) was reported at all levels of sleep. Reports during periods of rapid eye movement (REM) revealed more statements involving affective, visual, and muscular content with less correspondence to residue of S's waking life, than in non-REM periods. Results are related to Freudian theory of dreams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in dream recall.

Ss who typically fail to remember dreams at home (nonreporters) and Ss who frequently remember dreams (reporters) slept in the laboratory for 4 nights each. Gradual or abrupt awakenings were made at each EEG Stage-I REM (dream) period. Although nonreporters and reporters did not differ in REM-period frequency or EEG patterns during sleep, nonreporters did report dreaming less frequently following REM-period awakenings. Ss showed self-consistency in frequency of dream reporting and in type of failure to report. Some nonreporters typically failed to remember any content; others typically said they were awake and thinking. Comparisons among reporters and sub-groups of nonreporters for eye-movement frequency, arousal threshold, and dreamlike-report content indicate that it may be useful to distinguish different kinds of nonreporters. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward the experimental control of dreaming: A review of the literature.

Reviews those scattered studies which attempt to control & empirically evaluate nocturnal dreaming. It may be possible to develop a functional experimental approach in which dreams become more immediate and observable aspects of behavior, rather than only memories. (96 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The recall of dreams: Its relation to repression and cognitive control.

"The present study investigated the relationship between the recall of dreams and the cognitive controls continuum of leveling-sharpening… . The results confirmed the hypothesis that subjects who recall many dreams, i.e., who do not rely primarily upon repression, would show the sharpening tendency… a relationship between low dream recall and the leveling tendency, was not supported… [suggesting] that the psychoanalytic concept of repression can be associated with the theory of cognitive controls." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Function of Dreams: Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by L. Breger (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1967, 72[5, Pt. 2], 1-28). On page 5, lines 12-18 should read as follows: The treatment of these two types of "internal" stimulation as identical (which they are not), as well as the equation of internal with external stimulation, stems from the untenable assumptions concerning psychic energy and the nervous system that will be discussed shortly. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1968-00222-001.) Presents a theoretical analysis of dream function beginning with a review of the evidence bearing on the functions of REM sleep. Freudian dream theory is summarized and shown to be closely tied to the untenable doctrines of psychic energy and drive discharge. This view of motivation is recast in structural terms with emphasis on the processes of perception, internal transformations of perceived and stored information, and output. Motivational dominance is accounted for in terms of the initial structuring of the "memory systems" involved in the above processes and in terms of the interconnections of certain memory systems with potentiating emotional feedback systems. Dreams are described as 1 output of memory systems operating under programs peculiar to sleep. The hypothesis is considered that dreams may serve a unique function in the assimilation and mastery of aroused material into the "solutions" embodied in existing memory systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dimensions of dreaming: A factored scale for rating dream reports.

127 dream reports of 24 Ss were assessed on 20 psychological characteristics. Nearly all characteristics were assessed by 2 raters, and some by S as well, creating a total of 43 variables. These were subjected to principal component analysis and analytic orthogonal rotation. About 63% of the total variance is accounted for by 8 dimensions: vivid fantasy, active control, pleasantness, verbal aggression, physical aggression, heterosexuality, perception (vs. conception), and reference to past experience. In a resulting condensed scale, each dimension is indexed by a single characteristic. These 8 characteristics are essentially uncorrelated. The last 2 are assessed by S alone; rater agreement in assessing the 1st 6 is .63, .71, .62, .74, .44, and .66. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inferred goals in narratives: Evidence from self-paced reading, recall, and eye movements.

Three convergent methodologies were used to investigate the generation and reinstatement of goals not explicitly stated in a text. Readers read paragraphs adapted from J. S. Huitema, S. Dopkins, C. M. Klin, and J. L. Myers's (1993) study, which conveyed a character's goal early in the text. The goal was either stated explicitly or implied. An event was described later in the text that was either consistent or inconsistent with the goal. Line-by-line reading data, recall for the narratives, and eye-movement data were collected. Evidence is presented that readers infer a character's goal online at the time the information is presented, and the inferred goal functions like an explicitly stated goal in online comprehension processes and in the resulting memory representation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sleep spindles and learning potential.

The number of sleep spindles remains relatively stable within individuals from night to night. However, there is little explanation for the large interindividual differences in spindles. The authors investigated the relationship between spindles and intelligence quotient (IQ) in 3 separate studies. The number of spindles and sigma power were positively correlated with performance IQ (PIQ), but not verbal IQ (VIQ). The perceptual/analytical skills measured by the PIQ Picture Completion subscale accounted for most of the interindividual differences in spindles. Furthermore, there was a relationship between the rapid eye movements (REMs) of REM sleep and VIQ in individuals with higher IQ scores. A similar pattern was observed between spindles and PIQ. It was hypothesized that high-IQ individuals have more spindles that can support more complex cortical networks underlying perceptual/analytical abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rorschach movement and dreams: A validation study using drug-induced dream-deprivation.

To test the hypotheses that dream deprivation would produce an increase in quantity of projected movement and a change in its quality in the direction of body-dissolution imagery, 20 Ss were tested with Holtzman inkblots before and after 2 nights of drug-induced dream deprivation. Their performance was compared with that of 30 non-dream-deprived controls. Results were significant in the predicted direction and were interpreted as offering support for Rorschach's views on the fundamental similarity between movement and dreams due to the centrality of kinesthetic experience in both. Additional findings on space were congruent with Fonda's view of space as resistance to internal, rather than external, forces. More specifically, space was interpreted as resistance to movement. (32 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metamemory judgments and the benefits of repeated study: Improving recall predictions through the activation of appropriate knowledge.

Correspondence between judgments of learning (JOLs) and actual recall tends to be poor when the same items are studied and recalled multiple times (e.g., A. Koriat, L. Sheffer, & H. Ma’ayan, 2002). The authors investigated whether making relevant metamemory knowledge more salient would improve the association between actual and predicted recall as a function of repeated exposure to the same study list. In 2 experiments, participants completed 4 study–recall phases involving the same list of items. In addition to having participants make item-by-item JOLs during each study phase, after the 1st study–recall phase participants also generated change-in-recall estimates as to how many more or fewer words they would recall given another exposure to the same study list. This estimation procedure was designed to highlight repeated study as a factor that can contribute to recall performance. Activating metamemory knowledge about the benefits of repeated study for recall in this way allowed participants to accurately express this knowledge in a free-recall context (Experiment 2), but less so when the memory test was cued recall (Experiment 1). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: The effect of concurrent task performance.

In 3 experiments, participants saw lists of 16 words for free recall with or without a 6-digit immediate serial recall (ISR) task after each word. Free recall was performed under standard visual silent and spoken-aloud conditions (Experiment 1), overt rehearsal conditions (Experiment 2), and fixed rehearsal conditions (Experiment 3). The authors found that in each experiment, there was no effect of ISR on the magnitude of the recency effect, but interleaved ISR disrupted free recall of those words that would otherwise be rehearsed. The authors conclude that ISR and recency cannot both be outputs from a unitary limited-capacity short-term memory store and discuss the possibility that the process of rehearsal may be common to both tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: The effects of list length and output order.

In 4 experiments, participants were presented with lists of between 1 and 15 words for tests of immediate memory. For all tasks, participants tended to initiate recall with the first word on the list for short lists. As the list length was increased, so there was a decreased tendency to start with the first list item; and, when free to do so, participants showed an increased tendency to start with one of the last 4 list items. In all tasks, the start position strongly influenced the shape of the resultant serial position curves: When recall started at Serial Position 1, elevated recall of early list items was observed; when recall started toward the end of the list, there were extended recency effects. These results occurred under immediate free recall (IFR) and different variants of immediate serial recall (ISR) and reconstruction of order (RoO) tasks. We argue that these findings have implications for the relationship between IFR and ISR and between rehearsal and recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When dreaming is believing: The (motivated) interpretation of dreams.

This research investigated laypeople's interpretation of their dreams. Participants from both Eastern and Western cultures believed that dreams contain hidden truths (Study 1) and considered dreams to provide more meaningful information about the world than similar waking thoughts (Studies 2 and 3). The meaningfulness attributed to specific dreams, however, was moderated by the extent to which the content of those dreams accorded with participants' preexisting beliefs--from the theories they endorsed to attitudes toward acquaintances, relationships with friends, and faith in God (Studies 3-6). Finally, dream content influenced judgment: Participants reported greater affection for a friend after considering a dream in which a friend protected rather than betrayed them (Study 5) and were equally reluctant to fly after dreaming or learning of a plane crash (Studies 2 and 3). Together, these results suggest that people engage in motivated interpretation of their dreams and that these interpretations impact their everyday lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence of anticipatory eye movements in the spatial Hebb repetition effect: Insights for modeling sequence learning.

In the present study, the authors offer a window onto the mechanisms that drive the Hebb repetition effect through the analysis of eye movement and recall performance. In a spatial serial recall task in which sequences of dots are to be remembered in order, when one particular series is repeated every 4 trials, memory performance markedly improves over repetitions. This is known as the Hebb repetition effect. Eye movement recorded during the presentation of the to-be-remembered (TBR) information revealed that for the repeated sequence, participants fixated the location of the next TBR location before the actual presentation of the dot. The extent to which a TBR location was anticipated increased over repetition and occurred only for post-initial positions of the repeated sequence. Eye movement–based rehearsal activity was related to recall performance but not to sequence learning. The findings provide further evidence of anticipatory behavior in sequence learning and place key constraints on modeling the Hebb repetition effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple roles for time in short-term memory: Evidence from serial recall of order and timing.

Three experiments are reported that examine the relationship between short-term memory for time and order information, and the more specific claim that order memory is driven by a timing signal. Participants were presented with digits spaced irregularly in time and postcued (Experiments 1 and 2) or precued (Experiment 3) to recall the order or timing of the digits. The primary results of interest were as follows: (a) Instructing participants to group lists had similar effects on serial and timing recall in inducing a pause in recall between suggested groups; (b) the timing of recall was predicted by the timing of the input lists in both serial recall and timing recall; and (c) when the recall task was precued, there was a tendency for temporally isolated items to be more accurately recalled than temporally crowded items. The results place constraints on models of serial recall that assume a timing signal generates positional representations and suggest an additional role for information about individual durations in short-term memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

African American dreaming and the beast of racism: The cultural unconscious in Jungian analysis.

This article is an interpretation of the dream of an African American woman. The purpose is to discuss the contribution that contemporary Jungian analysis might make to the attempt by psychoanalysis to serve historically disenfranchised populations-- in particular, African Americans. The dreamer encounters racism in the image of a lion and other beasts. The interpretation takes into account both the archetypal level and the cultural level of the dream. Important concepts are the cultural unconscious and history-residues. The article argues that Jungian analysis-- as well as all other varieties of psychoanalysis-- will remain ineffective in addressing the concerns of disenfranchised populations until analysts make a serious effort to become culturally knowledgeable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting the direction of selective recall: Its relation to ego strength and N achievement.

2 experiments are conducted to explore the relationship between strong ego and weak ego Ss and the recall of uninterrupted vs. completed tasks. The results confirm an earlier finding that strong ego Ss recall significantly more completed tasks as the experiment conditions become more threatening to self-esteem; "weak ego subjects, interrupted tasks." 29 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic architecture of learning and delayed recall: A twin study of episodic memory.

Objective: Although episodic memory is often conceptualized as consisting of multiple component processes, there is a lack of understanding as to whether these processes are influenced by the same or different genetic determinants. The aim of the present study was to utilize multivariate twin analyses to elucidate the degree to which learning and delayed recall, two critical measures of episodic memory performance, have common or different genetic and environmental influences. Method: Participants from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (314 monozygotic twin pairs, 259 dizygotic twin pairs, and 47 unpaired twins) were assessed using the second edition of the California Verbal Learning Test. Mean age at the time of the evaluation was 55.4 years (SD = 2.5). Results: Model fitting revealed the presence of a higher-order latent factor influencing learning, short- and long-delay free recall, with a heritability of .36. The best-fitting model also indicated specific genetic influences on learning, which accounted for 10% of the overall variance. Given that learning involves the acquisition and retrieval of information, whereas delayed recall involves only retrieval, we conclude that these specific effects are likely to reflect genes that are specific to acquisition processes. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that even in nonclinical populations, it is possible to differentiate component processes in episodic memory. These different genetic influences may have implications for gene association studies, as well as other genetic studies of cognitive aging and disorders of episodic memory such as Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)